NO BLUE NOTES AT ST. LOUIS

The
NHRA Gateway Nationals has traditionally been a day race run during
the stifling heat and humidity that is the prevalent weather of the
Midwest's summer. As a result, the race is usually an endurance contest
for both fans and racers, with the fans fighting the heat and humidity
and the racers battling an overheated and slick track surface.

This year-thanks to a decision by the track and NHRA-the race was run
on Thursday through Saturday and mostly in the evening, and as a result
both the fans and racers were much more comfortable.

The fans were much happier with the later starting time for Pro Qualifying
as there was generally less heat and humidity for them to deal with.
For the racers, however, the format made their life a little more difficult.
Each qualifying day they made one lap on a track that had baked all
day in the hot sun and a second lap on the same track after dark with
the dew coming up. Finding a good qualifying tune-up was a very tricky
proposition indeed.

In the end Armstrong's expertise got Toliver the win over Dean Skuza
in a tire smoking, lane changing, pedaling classic at around 10:30 PM
Saturday night. That win gave Toliver a serious points lead over Force.

Neither
the Top Fuel nor Pro Stock troops ever really got the track surface
figured out. Joe Amato lead the Top Fuel troops with a less than stellar
4.602/317 but couldn't convert that to a win as Gary Scelzi won a backpedaling
final over Kenny Bernstein.